An Unachievable Retribution
An Unachievable Retribution ( この報復は受け入れがたし / この ほうふく は うけいれ がたし / kono houfuku wa ukeire gatashi / This Retaliation Is Hardly Acceptable ) is the seventy-sixth chapter of the Elfen Lied manga series, and the first chapter of Volume Nine. Plot Bando reacts immediately to the presence of Nyu, who he sees only as Lucy, while Mayu pleads, Kouta and Yuka are confused, and it becomes apparent that Nyu's horns have grown back. Nana awakens from her poison-induced sleep by the sound of a gunshot and her sense that Lucy has now reawakened. She then cries that she must now fulfill her promise to kill Lucy, which will inevitably end her stay at the Maple House and the greatest happiness she has ever known. Bando fires a warning shot, scaring Kouta and Yuka, and waking a confused Lucy from a month-long coma. Enraged that Lucy has been living a carefree life during his months of unceasing pursuit, he vows this time to kill her and grabs Kouta when he threatens to call the police, saying that he is pursuing a horned killer, which awakens memories of Kanae in Kouta. Lucy challenges Bando, to which he smiles and says he is taking their battle elsewhere. Kouta objects, but the girl he sees as Nyu says not to worry, she will return. Before he leaves, Bando denounces a tearful Mayu for lying to him about her knowledge of Lucy, saying that he and she are done, forever, and punching out an objecting Kouta as he goes. On the Kamakura beachfront, the Unknown Man struggles with the spike that Bando shoved up his backside, only to spot Bando, and then Lucy going to the beach for their battle. At the Maple House, Kouta awakens and brushes off talk of hospitals from Yuka, vowing to go after Nyu himself. Seeing the bloody mess the house has become, and then finding that Nana has left as well, he begins to despair over his incessant inability to protect their home. Nana walks down the streets, feeling her presence draws attackers to their home, and even trying, by way of bumping her head, to become an amnesiac so that other Diclonii can't sense her presence any longer because otherwise, she cannot live in safety with Mayu and the others. On the beach, the battle between Bando and Lucy begins, with her vowing to kill him quickly by exciting the blood vessels in his brain. Unimpressed, he tosses a rock which she easily deflects, stating that this time, he has taken her measure, and knows her tricks and limits. Knowing her range and having cleared the beach of objects she could weaponize, and he also fires off high caliber bullets too heavy and dense for her vectors to deflect, having tested it previously against Nana. Despite this, Lucy arrogantly gestures for the fight to resume, enraging Bando, and concerning the hidden Unknown Man, who still firmly believes that she cannot be defeated by the methods he is using. Taunted for this by Lucy, Bando tricks her into stepping near a flash bomb that blinds her, which he follows up with tear gas grenades. At first, pledging to play with the unfocused Lucy, Bando instead moves to finish her off, only to have the Unknown Man rush out to defend her, being a fanatical believer in Chief Kakuzawa's agenda for the 'new humanity.' Almost tenderly, he vows to serve as her eyes while an impatient Bando is set to kill them both. Lucy, for her part, decapitates him and hurls his head as a weapon against Bando. She then reveals that the flash bomb forced her eyes shut, limiting the useful life of his tear gas. She also says that he almost had her, but all his planning didn't allow for interference, and as her vectors brush his forehead, she mockingly laments his bad luck. Trivia *Mayu is on the receiving end of some loving cold-nosed kisses and licks on this chapter's cover, her shirt reminding a bit of overalls. Gallery ELC761A.JPG|With the truth weighting heavy on both, Bando breaks Mayu's heart and departs to fight for An Unachievable Retribution Category:Series Information Category:Story Related Category:Manga Category:Article